A Christian Outlook for the New Year

In our family, we celebrate New Year’s Eve in a typical way – Midnight Mass, party at our the house of our paternal grandparents, fireworks, noisemaking, countdown at the stroke of 12, eating the traditional twelve grapes for every month of the year.

Then, we interrupt the revelry to pray a Te Deum to thank God for all the blessings of the previous year, and for the coming New Year.

On afternoons of January 1, we usually do a pilgrimage as a family to a nearby Marian shrine or church dedicated to Our Lady.

I am very grateful to my parents and grandparents for these traditions. Reflecting on them, I realize that they not only kept us from forgetting that January 1 is the Solemnity of the Motherhood of Mary in addition to the New Year. They have also shown me a Christian way to welcome the New Year.

It is indeed, sad, that many people tend to celebrate the beginning of the calendar year instead of the Solemnity of the Motherhood of Mary on January 1. As Christians, though, we need not feel guilty about celebrating the earth’s completion of another revolution around the sun. We are part of humanity, and we share the same joys and sorrows as everyone else. Besides, there is no reason we cannot celebrate both the religious and the secular on the same date.

I propose that we do more than celebrate both. I propose that we share our unique perspective on the New Year with the rest of humanity.

Usually, people approach New Year assessing whether the previous year was “good” or “bad” based on that year’s top headlines, and merely wishing that the next year will be “good” based on the same criteria.

Others have the fatalistic outlook, one that sees the New Year in terms of good luck or bad luck, at the mercy of irrational forces controlling the universe.

But the Christian outlook is one of hope and trust in Divine Providence. It shares the rest of the world’s aspiration for peace and prosperity, but it transcends the sentiments exemplified by the “Imagine” song that is sung at the New Year’s celebration in time’s square.

This is because Christians believe that time has been redeemed by God, Who guides human affairs according to His wisdom and love. We see time in terms of our relationship with Him, not just as a succession of events marked by clocks and calendars.

As we reflect on the previous year, we see how God has blessed us, guided us, protected us. We see how many chances and second chances He has given us, how we have cooperated with His grace and helped Him carry out his plan for humanity. We also see our failures, and the times we felt He was distant. But we also see how He has forgiven us, or is waiting for us to ask His forgiveness, how He made everything turn out for the good in the end.
After asking God’s forgiveness for our failures, thanking Him for His blessings, and asking His help for the coming year, we look to it not with mere optimism but with hope – with a firm belief in a real possibility that the year will be better than the last, and that we can, with God’s help, make it so.

Many people make resolutions for the New Year. For me, the essence of New Year’s resolutions is captured by the words of Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring: “What we must decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” For time, indeed, is a gift, a chance for us to cooperate with Divine Providence by exercising our freedom.

As we greet others “Happy New Year”, let us communicate more than good aspirations for a better year for everyone. Let others see us hopeful, and may we be channels for the gift of hope to them.

Cristina Montes

Cristina Montes

Cristina Montes, from the Philippines, is a lawyer, writer, amateur astronomer, a gardening enthusiast, a voracious reader, a karate brown belter, an avid traveler, and a lover of birds, fish, rabbits, and horses. She is a die-hard Lord of the Rings fan who reads the entire trilogy once a year. She is the eldest daughter in a large, happy Catholic family.

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